On October 12, 2004, the U.S. Senate gave its final approval to a bill that is expected to have big ramifications for youth in the juvenile and criminal justice systems. The Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act won House approval earlier in October.

The bill, which was signed into law by President Bush on October 30, will authorize $50 million in federal funding for grants to states to support pre- and post- booking interventions. These will include programs that divert individuals with serious mental illness from going to jail—directing them instead to community-based treatment and support services.

The money will also assist law enforcement training, so that police officers will know what options are available for mentally ill youth whose behaviors bring them into contact with police. In addition, mental health courts, which already exist in some jurisdictions, will qualify for funding. These special courts are intended to divert mentally ill defendants from incarceration to community treatment and supports as quickly as possible.

More Urban Institute research on this topic is available online. The full Congressional report "Incarceration of Youth Who are Waiting for Community Health Services in the United States" is online.

According to the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan research organization, nearly 2,000 children in need of mental health treatment are currently held in America's jails and not receiving treatment. Some of them, according to a July 2004 report by the Democratic staff of the House Government Reform Committee, are under 10 years old. The report included a survey of 524 juvenile detention facilities conducted at the request of Rep. Henry Waxman, (D-Los Angeles), and Sen. Susan Collins, (R-Maine). It found that in two-thirds of all states, mentally ill youth are locked up, often without charges—simply because no local treatment is available.

More information on the Keeping Families Together Act is available in the Connect for Kids' article, "Foster Care: No Cure for Mental Illness" Javier Stauring, a lay chaplain with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, talked about teens serving time in the L.A. Men's Central Jail in this Connect for Kids' interview.

Many advocates and policymakers are pushing for changes that would keep mentally ill kids from entering the criminal and juvenile justice systems in the first place. The Keeping Families Together Act, still pending in Congress, aims to eliminate the pressures that lead some parents to give up legal custody of their emotionally disturbed children to the juvenile justice and foster care systems so the children can qualify for mental health services. The act would increase the availability of home and community-based services and give states financial incentives to support such services.

Still, for the thousands of mentally ill kids already in the justice system, the moment for prevention has passed. That's why some advocates are hailing the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act as an important step forward. In this interview, Laurel Stine, Director of Federal Relations with the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, shares her views on the bill.

Specifically, how will the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act affect youth?

The bill authorizes funding for local community collaborations between mental health and juvenile justice and criminal justice agencies. It's for both adults and youth with mental illness—The bill would fund a variety of programs that expand the criminal justice contact system: from pre-booking programs to post-booking programs to transition services for people coming out of facilities to mental health courts. So, [these are] a variety of approaches that basically enable localities to have as much flexibility for programs they think their communities need—whether the target population is adults or youth. We see it as having a lot of flexibility."

I would say that outside of the mental health court bill, which was passed in 2000, and outside of the program that's been funded through the Center for Mental Health Services—the Jail Diversion Program—outside of those two federal grant programs, I think this would be the next biggest program that would work to serve youth with mental illness who are coming into contact with the criminal justice system— We think that expanding the reach for youth will be great. The numbers are showing that there's a lot of contact, especially with kids who have emotional and mental disorders.

Does this bill take the focus away from prevention programs?

Well, let me back up for a second. We applaud the bill, no doubt. But the bill is not a silver bullet. And what I mean by that is that we really need to start learning how to prevent kids with mental and emotional disorders from actually becoming involved with the juvenile justice system to begin with. That's something that we hope parents, educators and others would know from this bill—and that schools are potentially the avenue and the front door for services for most of these populations. We think that's just a better and more effective policy to look at early intervention services, rather than wait until kids come into contact with the criminal justice system.

What's new in terms of the prevention front?

There's been a variety of legislation that does have prevention components when it comes to schools—IDEA [the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act] is being reauthorized. There are provisions within the special education law that would provide for behavioral intervention for kids. That's why that law—and the safeguards it provides—is very important to us.

At the same time, there are kids who are falling through the cracks. Kids with mental and emotional disorders, many of them are not qualifying for special education. Those who aren't qualifying may end up without the services—and they end up coming in contact with the juvenile justice system.

We need to have appropriate avenues to assist these kids as well. We see this bill as not only fostering collaborations, but also linking these individuals up with treatment so the cycle doesn't continue.

What are your thoughts on the funding for the bill?

The next battle is to get this appropriately funded. The authorization was reduced to $50 million, whereas it was initially introduced with $100 million.

How will the bill affect states that have programs in place that already do what the bill mandates--like Memphis, Tennessee, which already has a crisis intervention team, and Los Angeles, which has pre-booking programs?

This will provide the federal leadership—the federal money—to do what these states and localities are doing now with their own funding. I think it's good for all states, but that's why we were concerned about the authorization level dropping by half. There is a great need out there. I think that every jurisdiction can benefit from having federal assistance to be able to serve these populations effectively.

What else is on your plate in terms of mental health and kids?

The overriding issue is access to mental health services. Without access, children and adults are falling through the cracks. They're at risk for a host of adverse outcomes, whether it's suicide, homelessness, school failure and dropout. In addition to this legislation, we're actively pursuing mental health parity (in insurance coverage), and proposals that address the custody relinquishment issues. Unfortunately, mental illness is not a partisan issue (but) sometimes these issues get caught up in politics.

Is the tide changing?

I certainly hope the tide is changing, but this is just one single piece of legislation (that has passed) in the midst of a variety that have longstanding support (that have not passed). For example, the Family Opportunity Act—it's a bipartisan access bill, which actually has more support than this bill had—and yet, where has that gone? We're still struggling to even have the House consider it.

Resources:

The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law has more information on the mental health legislation mentioned in this article.

The National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice assists in developing policies and programs for youth with mental health disorders in contact with the juvenile justice system

The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill is a nonprofit support and advocacy organization for families and friends of people with severe mental illnesses

Rob Capriccioso is a staff writer for Connect for Kids.